As he walks down a crowded hallway at the Regal Hollywood 24 theater late Tuesday night, Bil Boozer rounds a corner so he can claim his place at the end of a line that includes young girls dressed in British school uniforms and grandmothers dressed as witches.
He thinks back to the last time he came out for a midnight premiere of a new Harry Potter movie. When “Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire” hit theaters in November 2005, Boozer and friends arrived two hours early and were among the first 10 people in line. They passed the time playing cards and trivia.
“We resolved never to do it again, but here we are,” Boozer says at about 10:55 p.m. Tuesday as he makes his way to the back of the line, which by then was so long that he stood about 10 feet from an exit door.
Boozer, a gay doctoral student at Georgia State University, began reading the Potter novels in 2001 as a way of connecting with his niece and nephew, who were already avid fans of world’s most famous teenage wizard. The books appealed to Boozer’s affinity for fantasy literature as well as his interest in adolescent issues stemming from his academic major in education.
“It’s a — I don’t want to say ‘traditional’ — but a common kind of story about growing up and realizing who you are,” says Boozer, who adds that the Potter franchise may hold added appeal to gay and lesbian audiences.
“There’s a kind of resonance there — Harry’s got things that he doesn’t understand about himself, that he comes to understand once he realizes he’s part of this other world,” Boozer says. “His family doesn’t accept him, they want him to keep [his magical powers] a secret — that sort of thing.
“There’s a lot of places for, particularly gay youth, to kind of see some things in there to associate with themselves, things that match up with their own feelings,” he adds.
J.K. Rowling’s potter books have enjoyed rare mass appeal, so it's no surprise that gay readers are among the throngs, including those who hunt for affirming themes about outsiders in the mystical storylines.
Most notably, a June 2003 column in the Boston Phoenix by gay author Michael Bronski questioned whether the entire series could be read as a gay allegory.
“The Harry Potter books are, in a word, queer,” wrote Bronski, who added that "queer" means more than simply "gay."
“They are deeply subversive in their unremitting attacks on the receive wisdom that being ‘normal’ is good, reasonably, or even healthy,” he continued.
From the opening pages of the first Potter book — “Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone,” released in the U.S. in 1998 — Bronski and others saw Rowling's tale as remarkably similar to a coming out story.
Living with his conservative aunt and uncle after the death of his parents, young Harry is kept out of view by his family because they are ashamed of him and his ways — as a wizard. Unaware of his magical powers, Harry spends almost a dozen years shuttered in a cupboard beneath the stairs.
“Even when I first read it, I thought the cupboard could be a metaphor for the closet,” says Becca Rainey, a lesbian who lives in Virginia-Highland and read “Sorcerer’s Stone” in early 2000 at the suggestion of her girlfriend.
“She told me it was supposed to be a kids’ book, but that it was a really good story and also had these moralistic undertones,” Rainey says. “So I guess I had some preconceptions when I read it, but it doesn’t seem hard to see that some things could be considered gay.”
As the story progresses, Harry learns of his powers as a wizard, finds peers and mentors who share his magical orientation and learns to accept and celebrate himself.
But beyond the similarities between that story and a typical coming-out experience, Bronski reads gay-coded hints in everything from the color clothing the witches and wizards wear (“purple, violet and green clothing — all colors associated with homosexuality”), to the language Harry’s uncle uses in chastising Harry’s atypical ways.
“I warned you!” Vernon Dursley yells to his nephew. “I will not tolerate mention of your abnormality under this roof!”
Another reason Rowling’s books are so successful — and why opening night for Harry Potter movies and sales kickoffs for the books attract such diverse crowds in terms of age, ethnicity and sexual orientation — is their universality.
Many passages that appear to be gay-affirming could also be read as messages of hope to other people ostracized by family or society, Boozer says.
“I didn’t make a direct connection with the books necessarily being gay, because there’s a whole lot of things that people go through in adolescence along the same kind of lines,” Boozer says. “If they’re dealing with some type of disability, or maybe they come from a different cultural or religious background, and they’re going to a school where they’re in the minority.”
Sampson Turner considers himself a devout Harry Potter fan, and plans to be at a late-night celebration at Outwrite Bookstore & Coffeehouse when the final installment in the book series is released July 21. But the gay Midtown resident says that all but a few gay metaphors must have gone over his head.
“There are some things that could be read [as a gay allegory], but overall I don’t think much about gay stuff when I’m reading it,” Turner says. “Maybe it’s the witches and wizards and stuff, but that whole world seems to be detached from that kind of thing.”
Gay allegory or not, Harry Potter continues to provoke the ire of Christian conservatives who accuse the books and movies of promoting witchcraft.
The American Library Association ranks the Harry Potter series among the Top 10 most "challenged" titles — when libraries are asked to pull a book out of circulation.
Harry Potter(Daniel Radcliffe) has a girlfriend (Katie Leung), but that doesn't stop some fans from speculating the character can be read as gay.
When the book “harry potter & the order of the Phoenix” was released in 2003, it included a passage where Harry’s cousin Dudley witnesses Harry utter the name “Cedric” in his sleep.
“Who’s Cedric — your boyfriend?” Dudley asks. Cedric is actually a fellow wizard at Harry’s school who was murdered by evil forces.
The same passage plays out in the “Order of Phoenix” film that came out this week, with Harry getting angry at Dudley’s remarks.
“I think it’s clear that his anger is more at Dudley dishonoring Cedric’s memory than at Dudley’s implication that Harry might be gay,” says Boozer, who enjoyed the film. “Harry does continue to dream about handsome Cedric, and some may want to read themselves into that.
“But these dreams are by and large nightmares, typically ending with the re-enact of Cedric’s death, not a reflection of same-sex yearnings on Harry’s part,” Booze says.
Despite discussions about how some Potter themes are in synch with a typical gay experience, Harry’s sexual orientation itself doesn’t seem to activate many gaydar systems. He’s got a girlfriend — for what that’s worth — and his journey through puberty has yet to reveal any same-sex attractions.
“Maybe in the earlier books, he was curious and confused, but he’s definitely butched it up recently,” Rainey jokes.
Any suspicions that Harry may be gay are likely wishful thinking, says Boozer, who doubts Rowling would risk alienating her massive readership by attaching such a real-world connotation to Harry’s dilemma as a misfit.
“She’s got this outsider who’s not exactly fitting into the whole story, but there’s nothing specifically about him or the people around him that would lead me to identify any of them as gay,” Boozer says.
Other gay fans aren’t quite as convinced that Potter’s world is homo-free.
“We don’t really know much about Neville and his relationship with his parents, and I find that a curious thing,” says Kris Harter, events coordinator for OutWorlders, a group for gay and lesbian science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts. “I wonder if there isn’t something there that’s been unexplored — having to deal with family and that sort of thing.”
one thing is for sure. the popularity of Harry Potter among local gay fans is palpable, from the hordes of gay movie-goers who attended the Wednesday morning premiere of “Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix” at Atlantic Station and Regal 24, to the events local gay book stores have in store to celebrate the release of “Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows” on July 21.
Excitement is reaching a fever pitch among Potter fans for the release of the book, the last in the Harry Potter series.
Outwrite plans to raffle off prizes at its event, where 10 percent of the proceeds from all store sales go to AID Atlanta. And Charis Books & More hosts a late-night breakfast featuring “bewitched bagels” and “magical muffins” to welcome the new novel.
“It’s very popular here — we’ve already got a lot of pre-orders for it,” says Charis’ Debby Gluckman.
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